Sofia Municipality already has a specially developed Methodology for Assessment of Projects in the Field of Digitalization and Intelligent Urban Solutions. It was elaborated by an international expert team of the consulting company Deloitte and implemented with the support of the European Investment Bank and the Project Information and Finance Division of the Fund of Funds.

The methodology will be applied by Innovative Sofia’s team when working on digitalization and smart city projects as a tool for assessing their relevance, feasibility, finance potential, readiness and sustainability. Part of the project with the European Investment Bank was the implementation of the Methodology to the indicative projects set out in the Action Plan for the implementation of the Digital Transformation Strategy of Sofia (DTSS). The analysis of the activities showed those of them in the highest degree of readiness and identified the aspects that need to be improved before further implementation.

The evaluation tool will also be used in our project ‘Sandbox for Innovative Solutions’ to assess the eligibility of proposals and to scale them up.

We would like to thank the experts from Deloitte for their work on the elaboration of the Methodology, as well as the European Investment Bank and the Project Information and Finance Division of the Fund of Funds for their support.

 

About the Methodology

The methodology sets out 50 criteria that pilot projects must meet. They are divided into four categories: Formal, Fit, Finance, and Feasibility, which aim to assess the project proposal in terms of its degree of readiness, relevance, feasibility, and financial sustainability.

The criteria include subjects as: clear definition of the project/initiative goal; available team with the necessary expertise for project implementation; whether or not the project meets the operational objectives set out in the DTSS; to what extent citizens will be willing to use the particular product or service; are the project results likely to be long lasting; does the project have a business plan; is there risk of vendor locking; how the project can be funded – by private or public financing, and is it expected to generate revenues or reduce costs; is the project applicable to any (or multiple) strategic documents on a city, national or European level; is the project aligned with strategic documents on a city, national or EU level; has the project team identified partners/stakeholders for the realisation of the project, and many more.

 

The methodology is a valuable resource that will contribute to:

• Provide stakeholders with information needed to guide a project strategy towards achieving set goals and objectives;
• Use the logical framework approach and identify gaps concerning the relevance, feasibility and financing prospects of a project or initiative;
• Provide early warning of activities and processes that need corrective action;
• Help empower project partners by creating opportunities for them to reflect critically on the project’s direction and decide on improvements;
• Build understanding, motivation and capacity amongst those involved in the project.

 

The Methodology will make it possible to process the information with respect to a given project proposal and to prioritize it within the project pipeline.